It is an interactive interface which
allows patients to freely reminesce by choosing between a selection of
songs and photos. Often progressive states of dementia lead to silence
and a period of non-communication, and these memory boxes act as a
trigger for patients and their relatives, as well as their caregivers.
They also lessen the burden of care on overworked and understaffed
residences.

Here's how the boffins at Dundee (that's what the Brits call scientists -- boffins) describe it:

"Reminiscence sessions take advantage of the enjoyment that
older people, both with and without dementia, have in relating well-rehearsed
and well remembered previous experiences or events of personal and emotional
significance. Of particular interest is the fact that in dementia, long-term
memory is often relatively well preserved even though short-term memory is
impaired. This project has produced an innovatively designed reminiscence
experience based on interactive multimedia. The CIRCA system provides the user
with a hypermedia structure for their communication and thereby creates a
livelier and more engaging form of joint reminiscence activity than is possible
with a paper scrapbook."

In other words, the loved ones collect pictures, songs, snips of video, anything that reflects on the life of their loved one. They sit down and interact with the loved one, showing a picture, playing a song, getting them to talk, then going to the next when that thread runs out. Better still, the patient interacts with the software, going back through their own life.

Think of it as an electronic version of the device used in the movie The Notebook.

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